Caylen Laberge lost nearly everything except his life in a horrific lawnmower accident.
He was 19 months old, playing in the backyard. Caylen ran in front of a riding lawnmower being operated by his older brother.
The damage was devastating. Caylen was airlifted to CHEO with catastrophic injuries. His face was split open and his brain exposed. His nose and an eye were lost.
"His father, when he first picked him up, was surprised first of all that he had survived the accident," said Dr. Marko Jarmuske, a plastic surgeon.
"I saw him in the emergency room and he was awake and alert."
Jarmuske led a team of specialists (including neurosurgery, opthamology, and orthopedics) in a 12-hour effort to save Caylen's life.
That was two years ago.
Ever since, plastic surgeons have toiled for countless hours to rebuild his face. Now three-years-old, Caylen is working with a speech therapist.
Dr. David Jordan, an oculoplastic surgeon, installed a plastic ball implant to fill Caylen's left eye socket with volume - one of several reconstructive surgeries during his three-month stay at CHEO.
"The eye area is such a centre of focus for communication," Jordan told CTV Ottawa. "When we interact we're looking right at each other's eyes. And it's so important to try and keep an eye there even if it's artificial, and if it is artificial we try and make it as normal as it can be."
Dr. Jarmuske, meanwhile, reconstructed Caylen's upper lip. With at-times painful therapy, his weeping would soon turn to words.
His speech therapist told CTV Ottawa that observers didn't know if Caylen would ever talk, or need to rely on sign language or another form of communication.
"We're just really pleased that now he's got intelligible speech and that he can communicate effectively with everybody around him," the therapist said.
Caylen's next step is a trip to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where a full team of plastic surgeons will examine him.
"He's adapted to so much stuff already, there's nothing he can't do that any other three-year-old can," said his father Gus.
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) only covers plastic surgeries that are medically necessary, including disfigurement or abnormalities. Cases are decided on an individual basis, based on defects in physical appearance caused by diseases, trauma, or birth deformities.
"It helps the parents a lot," said Tina Laberge, Caylen's mother. "We have a lot to go through with taking care of them after the surgery, and trying to help them live a normal life.
"And to worry about all that stuff I think that would be even more overwhelming and too hard."
With a report from CTV Ottawa's John Hua
